Monday, May 15, 2017

Roger Maris 1961 home run splits.

Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in 1961, breaking the old record of 60 set by Babe Ruth in 1927. Ruth set the season HR record four times:
1919 29 Red Sox, home park: Fenway Park
1920 54 Yankees, home park: Polo Grounds
1921 59 Yankees, home park: Polo Grounds
1927 60 Yankees, home park: Yankee Stadium

In 1961 the American League expanded by 25%, increasing from 8 to 10 teams. The National did the same in 1962. The schedule increased five percent from 154 games to 162. Five percent of 60 is 3. In a general sense to equal 60 HR in 162 games the total should be 63 HR.

In 1961 the Washington Senators moved to Minneapolis and became the Minnesota Twins and were replaced by a new expansion team called the Washington Senators. The other expansion team was the Los Angeles Angels.

The two new teams were stocked with players drafted from the 8 AL teams. The dilution of talent of the 16 major league teams was about 12%. Weaker pitchers and weaker batters were playing in the AL and NL who would not have been playing in 1960. There's no getting around that.

Did Maris specifically take advantage of the two new expansion teams? It doesn't really matter as all teams were impacted.

Among the HR leaders, only Mantle had a better HR rate than Maris. HR rate for AL teams:

Tm

HR

"AB"

AB/HR

BAL

109

4,240.30

38.90

WSA

131

4,104.00

31.33

NYY

137

4,173.00

30.46

KCA

141

4,085.00

28.97

LgAvg

153

4,170.00

27.25

CHW

158

4,206.60

26.62

MIN

163

4,146.30

25.44

BOS

167

4,156.60

24.89

DET

170

4,230.30

24.88

CLE

178

4,187.30

23.52

LAA

180

4,160.00

23.11

The Senators pitching staff had the second best AL HR rate but the Angels had the worst. Maris had his fewest HR against the Orioles and they allowed the fewest HR. Here are his HR Rates against AL teams.

Split

HR

AB

AB/HR

Chicago White Sox

13

71

5.46

Cleveland Indians

8

61

7.63

Washington Senators

9

75

8.33

Detroit Tigers

8

74

9.25

Boston Red Sox

7

65

9.29

Kansas City Athletics

5

67

13.40

Los Angeles Angels

4

59

14.75

Minnesota Twins

4

65

16.25

Baltimore Orioles

3

53

17.67

It's not clear that Maris took particular advantage of the two expansion teams: Senators and Angels. Here is how Maris did by ballpark.

Park

HR

AB

AB/HR

CLE-ClevelandStd

5

33

6.60

DET-Tiger Stad

5

37

7.40

CHW-ComiskeyPk 1

5

39

7.80

BOS-Fenway Pk

4

35

8.75

KCR-Munic. Stad

4

36

9.00

NYY-Yankee Stad

30

280

9.33

WSH-GriffithStad

4

38

9.50

LAA-Wrigley (LA)

2

27

13.50

MIN-Metrop. Stad

1

30

30.00

BAL-Memor. Stad

1

35

35.00

Park

HR

AB

AB/HR

Road

31

310

10.00

Maris had an overall HR rate of 9.67, so he was only slightly better in Yankee Stadium.

Year

HR

AB

AB/HR

AL

1960

1,086

41,838

38.52

AL

1961

1,534

54,904

35.79

Year

HR

AB

AB/HR

Maris

1960

39

499

12.79

Maris

1961

61

590

9.67

Maris

Year

HR

AB

AB/HR

home

1960

13

232

17.85

road

1960

26

267

10.27

In 1960 Maris had a much better HR Rate on the road, about what he had on the road in 1961. He was on pace to hit about 55 HR in 1960 when he was injured. In the first half of 1960 in 72 games Maris hit 27 HR in 310 AB. In 1960 Maris batted mostly third and fourth. He and Mantle had these PA in those spots:

Mantle

Maris

3

296

173

4

187

288

Mantle was not protecting Maris in 1960 as he did in 1961. In 1960 Yankee manager Casey Stengel moved Maris to number 3 and Mantle to 4 in September and in all seven World Series games Stengel batted Mantle lower in the Yankee batting order than Maris. It was Stengel, not his replacement in 1961 Ralph Houk, who switched them to have Mantle protecting Maris. The pattern was largely in place in early September 1960 and for Yankee games 147 (9/23/1960) though 155 (10/2/1960) it was Maris 3, Mantle 4 in every game. Roger Maris had become a Home Run hitter in 1960.